


Scrambling By A Day-lit Fire

by lucentic



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Drabble, Drabble Collection, M/M, archive for taiga x tetsuya fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-13
Updated: 2014-12-26
Packaged: 2018-01-04 11:59:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1080751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucentic/pseuds/lucentic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of unrelated drabbles for kagami x tetsuya.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. speaks the raven's beak

**oo1. Sleep**

  


Kagami is rudely awakened by a wild thrashing in his bed, for the third night in the row.

  


Well-practiced by now, his lips are pressed into a thin line as he takes Kuroko’s violent frame by the shoulders, shaking him gently and smoothing back his hair to wake him up. For a quiet reserved person like Kuroko, it is really surprising for Kagami to have to dodge two flailing punches and a kick to the groin (he doesn’t quite avoid the last one, and he groans a little). But then again, Kagami knows that it’s for a good reason.

  


“ _Kuroko_.” The blue haired boy finally, finally comes to, after Kagami has murmured his name into his ear for at least a dozen times. Eyes still wild and unseeing, they dart around the room frantically, and Kagami watches with worry as Kuroko’s Adam’s apple bobs around, the boy simply coming up with choppy sentences. He brings a hot hand up to Kuroko’s cheek, and he’s not surprised to find that it’s damp.

  


His other hand curls into a fist.

  


“Baby, it’s okay. You’re in our room.”

  


Kuroko blinks, once, twice. It’s like watching someone awaken from a very deep sleep when Kuroko finally registers his surroundings, registers that it is Kagami who is holding on to him and not a certain golden-skinned boy from his nightmares. Kagami opens his arms, and Kuroko crawls gratefully into the cage, hands closing weakly over the hem of Kagami’s shirt.

  


“I’m sorry to have woken you up yet again, Kagami-kun.”

  


The redhead runs his hands gently up and down Kuroko’s back, holding him closer when the shorter shivers slightly. “It’s okay.”

  


It’s not, though. In the dark, when Kuroko looks up at Kagami, the taller can see that his eyes are bruised purple, and his irises are webbed with a pain that strikes him in the heart, but yet distant enough to make him ball up his fists uselessly again and grit his teeth because he can’t fight Kuroko’s demons for him.

  


He’s lying if he says that he’s not insanely affected by the fact that there will always (he hopes not) be another person Kuroko sees against the backs of his eyelids when he closes his eyes, when his fingers run across the ridges of a basketball, or when he swipes past his Teikou jersey while looking for a suitable shirt to wear out on a date with Kagami.

  


It really, really bothers him, and Kuroko knows that, so the shorter tries to hide it from him whenever he can. But what he doesn’t know is that it simply infuriates Kagami even further, because it fucking sucks to see Kuroko’s demons resurface in slumber, and that they’re all in his head so Kagami can only sit with the boy until he wakes up.

  


“I’m okay, you know.” Kuroko smiles at him, gently, and Kagami swipes a thumb across his lip. He doesn’t believe him, and his heart really, really aches for him.

  


“You know that I’ll never let him hurt you like that again, right? Or anyone else.” _I would never leave you like he did._

  


Kuroko stiffens in his arms, but Kagami doesn’t let go. He never does, the hot-headed, persistent bastard. But luckily for him, Kuroko doesn’t get mad, and understands, even if blood thrums in his veins faster than a pair of hummingbird’s wings. “I know that. I’m sorry I worried you, Kagami-kun.”

  


Kagami snorts, a loud, unattractive sound in the middle of the night that makes Kuroko laugh. The bedsprings squeak as the smaller shifts his weight, and Kagami leans back into the headboard when Kuroko sits up on his knees to press a kiss to his lip. “You’re such an idiot.”

  


“Sleep.” Kuroko’s voice is still wavery, but at least it doesn’t sound so broken anymore. And Kagami smiles, because it’s really stupid for someone who needs the sleep a thousand times more than he does to tell him to go to bed.

  


There are bruises under Kuroko’s eyes and in his heart that Kagami can probably never remove. But at the very least, he’s good at nursing them until they hurt a little less, until Kuroko sees Kagami behind the backs of his eyelids, in his closet, on the court for a few extra seconds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 **oo2. Love**  

  


Kagami's first name may be Taiga, but when it comes to a lot of things, he's nothing like the magnificent wildcat, with a heart that cries out for war and victory with bravery.

  


More specifically, things that are related to a certain teammate of his.

  


He blames the process of falling in love with Kuroko entirely on the shorter boy. His descent into gradual insanity was nothing short of plunging and clumsy, for the first time he realised, he had stumbled unceremoniously into a drain, and had to have stupid Kuroko pull him out with concern written all over his face. And all Kuroko did before all that drama was smile at him and wish him good morning in that annoyingly formal way of his.

  


Kagami's tried very hard to avoid the subject of Kuroko in his head. He's no greenhorn when it comes to relationships, having been in a fair amount of them himself, but Kuroko doesn't have boobs or a curvy waist or soft long hair. Kuroko is a _boy_ , made of hard lines and lean muscle, as delicate as he might look. Kuroko is his teammate, his partner, his stupid goddamn shadow and his best friend, and Kagami really doesn't want to fuck anything up.

  


But he might as well be fighting a losing war - the more he pulls away and tries to suppress the heat creeping up the base of his neck when Kuroko looks up at him innocently while holding the damned dog in his hands, the more his stupid, deep blue eyes drag him back down. Kagami swears a lot when he realises that he's losing precious sleep and- low and behold- appetite over Kuroko after he realises that it's impossible not to think of him after walking in on the shorter in the locker room while he was changing out of his gritty jersey. And stupid, oblivious Kuroko had noticed nothing, and even turned around to tell him that he left his socks under the bench.

  


It's been a year and a half now, and over eight months since Kagami found out, but it's still the same with Kuroko. Once upon a time, he'd been driven to do something about it, to confess to the slighter boy and get him on a date, but as Kuroko continues to be distant and formal and _annoyingly oblivious_ , Kagami slowly loses hope. He's never going to get Kuroko, not when Kuroko never looks like he's fighting down a blush while he's around Kagami, and certainly not when he has Satsuki all over him.

  


He briefly wonders why that damned phantom boy has all the luck - Satsuki is curvy and lean and gorgeous, and has an amazing personality to boot. And here he is, stuck in a rut and hopelessly in love with a boy that's too far, too high away for him to reach.

  


_Generation of Miracles indeed._

  


Kagami can't afford to show love, at least not to Kuroko when he's everything but a lover. But sometimes it slips out. It slips out of Kagami's pocket when he is easily bullied by Kuroko to treat him to vanilla milkshakes, and he does that partly (okay, mostly) to see the small tilt of the other's lips when he receives his drink. It slips out of Kagami's eyes when he lets his eyes linger a little too long at Kuroko's bare, pale torso in the locker rooms. It slips out of his stomach when he offers the skinny boy one or two of his Maji Burgers, even when he's starving and doesn't have enough money to buy more for himself. It slips out of his mouth too, sometimes, by accident, when he blurts out that Kuroko looks cute in his bedhead or when he has his tie on wrong. But he always regrets it when Kuroko frowns and draws himself up to his fullest (inadequate) height, because it is so fucking cute and it makes Kagami want to throw himself under a truck when Kuroko shoves at him disgruntledly.

  


But what Kagami doesn't know, the halfwit, is that the way love slips out of him is the same for Kuroko, too.

 


	2. light that falls away from shadow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kagami would have preferred Kuroko in an ebony suit, next to him.

**oo3. Pain**

  
  


They’re in the dressing room together, at Kuroko’s place. Kagami is leaning against the door, left foot cocked at the knee, fingers clumsily trying to knot the tie around his neck. He stiffens when Kuroko pulls them away and replaces them with his own, eyes downcast as he watches the shorter deftly knot the piece of silk together.

  
  


“Thank you.” He doesn’t know what else to say.

  
  


Kuroko simply smiles back, a gentle one that pulls at Kagami’s heart strings and encourages him to take a step forward. “Kagami-kun is dashing today.”

  
  


“Wouldn’t want to steal the show away from you today, would I?” And then, “You look beautiful.”

  
  


It simply slips out. Kuroko’s hair is styled to perfection, little wisps of blue hanging over his eyes that has Kagami’s fingers itching to push them away. The suit that he’s wearing is, of course, tailored to fit seamlessly against the lean, hard lines of Kuroko’s body. Contrary to the traditional black, Kuroko’s suit is midnight, and it makes his irises seem even deeper than they have ever been before. His feet are still bare, only socked, but Kagami’s already seen the pair of sleek designer shoes sitting beside the door.

  
  
  


Kuroko doesn’t seem to notice the ruckus everyone’s making outside, and Kagami watches as a faint shade of pink dusts itself on his cheeks. It brings a lump to his throat that both aches and yearns, because Kuroko is gorgeous like that, but at the same time, not for him.

  
  


Once upon a time, he was, though. But it lights a slow burn in Kagami’s chest when he notices the little differences. Kuroko never dressed up for him, not properly, not even for their college prom. But of course he’s not saying that he needs any dressing up to look exquisite.

  
  


“Thank you.” It’s now Kuroko’s turn to stutter, and he looks away to fix his own tie. Kagami catches the slight trembling of his fingers. “I hope Kise-kun likes this.”

  
  


“I’ll blend his balls if he doesn’t,” Kagami vows vehemently, and Kuroko lets out a surprised little laugh, giving the taller a small punch to his chest.

  
  


“You haven’t changed much, Kagami-kun.”

  
  


“Yeah, well.” Kagami can’t stop staring at Kuroko, at the way _his_ chest rises and falls in steady little beats. He wonders if Kise looks at him the same way, if he’s going to like Kuroko talking in his sleep the way he does-

  
  


But he’s getting carried away. Kagami clears his throat, loud and audibly, his eyes skimming the line of Kuroko’s back, and god forbid, his ass when he bends down to pick up a cufflink he’s dropped onto the floor. “Are you nervous?”

  
  


“A little. I feel like my heart’s about to explode.” Kuroko’s always been frankly honest, and it’s one of the reasons why Kagami fell for the blue-haired boy- _man_. But this time, he wishes Kuroko would mince his words around him, especially on a day like this. He doesn’t need to fall to pieces right in front of his best friend and the rest of the Generation of Miracles at the former’s wedding.

  
  


“Take deep breaths.” Kagami closes the gap between them in the small room in two strides, and places his hands on Kuroko’s shoulders. He faintly smells the other man, and his nostrils flare as the familiar mix of vanilla and apple shower gel wafts up. There is also something else that he absolutely knows what it is but refuses to think about. “Or before you faint you could record yourself saying ‘I do’ and I’ll play it in front of Kise during the exchanging of vows.”

  
  


“ _Bakagami_.” The use of his old nickname brings a lazy tilt to the side of his lips, and he ruffles the back of Kuroko’s hair, gently so he doesn’t mess up the stylists’ hard work. He knows that they’re as pissy as Kise when his shoots don’t come out the way he wants them to.

  
  


“Shut up. Feeling better now?”

  
  


“Yes. Thank you Kagami-kun.”

  
  


“You should finish getting dressed and go out to meet the rest now. I think Midorima is having a fit from rejecting all of Kise’s Facetime requests because the impatient bastard wants to see what you look like so much.”

  
  


Kuroko snorts, and steps back. Kagami’s hands feel strangely empty. “I will. Go out and enjoy the party, Kagami-kun. I’ll be there in a minute.”

  
  


“Don’t disappear,” Kagami warns, but lets himself out of the room. He doesn’t listen to Kuroko, though, and instead slips outside for a much-needed cigarette. He silently thanks the gods when Aomine lets him slip past him without another word out of his usually-crass mouth.

  
  


Nobody said he had to take anyone’s advice, not even his own.

  
  


Satsuki has to persuade him to sit through the entire ceremony though. Satsuki, the girl who was in love with Kuroko from middle school. Satsuki, the girl he wasn’t very fond of for analyzing every bit of his gameplay so that he always had little to no new tricks up his sleeve (it didn’t matter in the end when they won, of course). She leaves Aomine’s side to sit beside him, keeping a firm grasp on his elbow with her tiny fingers, as if to keep him from running away. Kagami feels like snorting and telling her that she couldn’t stop him if he really wanted to leave.

  
  


As if reading his mind, Aomine leans forward in his seat and whispers into his ear. “But I will.”

  
  


“Dai-chan,” Satsuki quietly admonishes, and smiles at Kagami, a careful, concerned smile that makes his fingers twitch. He sees genuine happiness for Kuroko there, the way she hugs him and puts all her blessings into it. He wonders how she learnt to get over Kuroko, if she’s let go of him completely.

  
  


Akashi’s voice cuts through his train of thought as he announces the beginning of the ceremony, just as the doors of the church click open. The dialogue fades away into the background though, when Kuroko walks in. Kagami can barely hear Satsuki’s excited squeals of _he’s so handsome_ over the thundering of his heartbeat in his veins.

  
  


It takes a lot for him not to stand up and grab Kuroko by the arm when he walks down the aisle, especially when their eyes meet. Kuroko’s own are shining, and Kagami sees his own stiffened reflection in them, so he forces himself to smile encouragingly. He holds up his fist in an old, familiar gesture, and sees Kuroko make his own, just with his arm down.

  
  


It feels like eternity, the second they share that one glance, because Kagami pours all of his memories and feelings into it, but it ends way too soon when Kuroko slips past, already a long distance ahead the next time Kagami blinks. He avoids grinding his teeth because it is just like Kuroko disappear the moment his concentration breaks.

  
  


He’s never been good with his attention span.

  
  


He ignores the cool little voice in his head that sounds an awful lot like Akashi, saying that his poor concentration and lack of understanding of Kuroko’s needs inevitably brought Kise.

  
  


He vaguely registers Satsuki rubbing his forearm reassuringly as the couple exchange their vows. Each breath he takes is a blade stuck down his throat, and he has to summon every ounce of _concentration_ to not ruin the moment for Kuroko. Behind him, he feels Aomine getting ready to pounce if he stands up and objects to the proceedings of the ceremony.

  
  


He forces himself to look, at Kuroko’s pink lips moving as he closes the ceremony with his final words. He forces himself to look at the light in Kise’s eyes, brighter than he’s ever seen them, brighter than they’ve ever been when he’s found something that challenges him. Kise would be good for Kuroko, maybe better than he ever was, he thinks. He might be too clingy and affectionate for the blue-haired man, but he has an understanding of the other since middle school that Kagami would probably never be able to achieve.

  
  


He rids himself of Aomine and Satsuki later, forcing the two of them to spend time together with the rest of their old friends while he weaves his way through the crowd for Kuroko. The shorter spots him in an instant, and holds up a pale hand in greeting, a smile on his face that is entirely personal but yet public for the room to see, and it almost makes Kagami’s step falter.

  
  


He forces himself to smile. “Congratulations, Kuroko.” On finding a life that’s got to be better than the one you had with me.

  
  


Kuroko extends his arms for a hug, and Kagami inhales him from the crook of his neck for the last time.

 


	3. Make Me Feel Like Breathing (Feel Like I am Human)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kagami swears he's trying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one is angst, and implied character death looming in the midst.

Sometime after he turns twenty-nine, Kagami realises that he’s fallen into some sort of cycle.

  
  


It doesn’t really matter who he’s met in the beginning, it always ends the same way. Kagami’s dated a dancer, an aspiring architect, a certified neurotic, even a high-end model; surprisingly, that relationship lasted the longest. They’re different, all unique individuals in their own way, and each time they walk into his life, Kagami starts thinking that he’s got a chance. This one’s going to work out. They’re going to get somewhere, and maybe he’ll finally have someone <i>stable</i> enough to bring back home to his mother when he goes back to Japan to visit. But that never happens. Kagami wonders why he keeps trying, opening another book after the last chapter of yet another failed relationship.

  
  


To be fair, it’s not completely his fault, even if everything else points back to him.  For Midorima, he had shown up on Kagami’s doorstep unannounced, seven months into their relationship, to hand the confused redhead a box stuffed full with the things he’d given him, little snippets of their relationship. For someone with severe anxiety issues, Midorima is perfectly composed when he breaks up with Kagami.

  
  


“Why?”

  
  


“I think you’re a good man, Kagami, I really do. I’m grateful to you for devoting so much time to help me get better; I don’t hate myself so much anymore. But I’m never going to recover completely if I keep dating someone who doesn’t let go of the past.” Midorima smiles, a small, gentle one, and it makes Kagami’s heart twist as the taller bends to press his lips to his, one last time.

  
  


Kagami has a lot of things to say at the tip of his tongue, but they remain there, congealing into a hard mass of regret as he watches Midorima make his way down his driveway. He knows what Midorima is talking about, but absolutely refuses to think about the pictures on the walls, the wrong mix of coffee he makes sometimes when he’s disoriented in the morning, for Midorima.

  
  


It doesn’t last long with Aomine. Kagami had hoped they’d evolve into something more than just fuck buddies, but Aomine, intimidating and feral as he was when he felt like it, was disturbed.  There was something about Kagami’s apartment that- _spooked_ him out, even if he didn’t know what. He had apologetically told Kagami that he constantly felt like he was being watched, even when he went to piss, and had disappeared from his life soon after that. Not that Kagami blamed him, of course. He was just glad that that was all that happened to Aomine.

  
  


With Kise Ryouta, the breakup gets to Kagami the most. Not just because they’d been together the longest and had their relationship announced on the newspaper, which made everything a thousand times more official when it came to dating a famous person, but because Kise had tolerated more than any of his other lovers had. Which was something to be taken note of; Kagami had always found models airheaded and perpetually annoying.

  
  


Their breakup is also the most dramatic. It happens in the middle of the day, when Kagami is sprawled on the bed, still disoriented from his nap. Kise comes into the room like a hurricane, his usual honeyed voice trembling with a desperation that has Kagami freezing, and he doesn’t respond well to the redhead trying to gather him up in his arms.

  
  


“Why haven’t you told me that you were still engaged?’

  
  


“I-” To be honest, Kagami doesn’t have an answer to that one. He’s just buying time, holding on to Kise’s wrists and trying not to be pulled off the bed with the effort the distraught model is putting into the struggling.

  
  


“No, wait, I don’t want to know the answer to that. Do you have any idea how _cheated_ I feel right now? Sixteen months, and you haven’t bothered to say anything. I had to hear all of _that_ from Kasamatsu-senpai, who is, by the way, beside himself because he has to cover up the mess with the press. _Fuck you_ , Taiga.”

  
  


“I was going to tell you,” Kagami says, but the lie is hollow coming out of his throat. He has no idea what he’s been thinking, but he’s infinitely glad that Kise’s stayed on this long. Maybe he’ll stay on a little longer, until he can get his shit sorted out and everything’ll be okay between them again.

  
  


Maybe not. “I’m tired of believing your excuses, Taiga. I really thought we were going somewhere, you know? I was going to drop the Paris fashion convention, the biggest fucking runway of the year, _essential_ for my career to take off, for your birthday. I was going to take us to look at apartments pretty soon, fuck the fact that you can’t pay your share of it because I can comfortably handle everything and I love you. But fuck. You’re _engaged_ , and I guess I can’t do these things anymore.”

  
  


“Ryou-”

  
  


“It’s _Kise_ to you, Kagami.” No _cchi_  at the back of his name anymore, and everything makes Kagami’s heart ache. “I can’t deal with any more of this, no matter how much I love you. You’re on your own- no, don’t talk about breaking off the engagement as soon as you can. I don’t want to deal anymore; it’s been forever. I could deal with you having his picture in your wallet as long as you had me on everything else; I could deal with you making me watch movies you two used to love. It was really hard to deal with you moaning someone else’s name, but eventually I got through that, too. But _this_? What am I, Taiga, just one of the fucking dumb blondes you think all models are?”  

  
  


It takes Kise two days to pack, and by the time he’s moved everything he owns out of Kagami’s apartment, it looks stripped and bare, void of sunshine that reflects of Kise’s hair and absorbed into the wallpapers whenever he comes home. But just bare of Kise Ryouta.

  
  


He doesn’t ever want to admit it, not even think about it, but he knows what he would absolutely die without.

  
  


Kuroko isn’t like Kise at all. He’s there when Kagami stumbles into his empty room at three in the morning, the front of his shirt slightly damp with alcohol that he’s accidentally spilled on himself. If Kagami hadn’t smelt the salt and brine in the room, he might’ve collapsed right on top of the other.

  
  


“Kuroko,” he breathes, stopping short at the foot of his bed, staring. The room is wrapped in shadow, save for Kuroko’s eyes, which are slightly illuminated by the weak light of the moon straying through the window.

  
  


Kuroko smiles, a tiny, sad one that Kagami might have missed if he wasn’t staring so hard. “Kagami-kun.”

  
  


“You’re back.”

  
  


Kuroko nods in assent, but doesn’t move from his position on the bed, even when Kagami crawls over and stretches out his hands. As usual, his skin is a chilling contrast to the heat radiating from him. It’s a feeling that slices through his gut.  “You’ve been drinking again, Kagami-kun.”

  
  


“We broke up.”

  
  


Slightly-roughened fingers weave themselves into Kagami’s hair, and they scratch gently, soothingly at his scalp. Kagami feels the knots in his shoulders unravel automatically, and he pulls Kuroko closer, pressing his face to his shirt. It doesn’t matter if the blue-haired boy is soaking wet, with his hair in a mess, and if there’s a draught blowing into the room right that moment. Even the worst feels right with the slighter boy by his side.

  
  


“You can’t stay like this forever, Kagami-kun. It’s been six years.”

  
  


“I know. And I’m trying.” Kuroko leans in, and Kagami drinks the kiss up like a parched man. He can feel the haze in his head clearing; nothing matters at the moment.

  
  


“You’re keeping me here, you know. Doing this to yourself.”

  
  


“I love you,” Kagami says impulsively, quickly, kissing him again to shut him up. He doesn’t want to think, wants to revel in the other boy- _boy_ , because he hasn’t aged a day- ‘s presence.

  
  


“And I love you, too.” Kuroko sounds infinitely sad saying this. Not that they’ve never been through this, of course. Kagami is used to it. Sometimes he admits that he does this to himself. “That’s why I haven’t been able to leave.”

  
  


“And I don’t want you to.”

  
  


“Kise-kun was a good choice for you. You should have listened to him and got better, let him help you like how you helped Midorima-kun.”

  
  


“There’s nothing wrong with me,” Kagami says automatically, pressing his nose to the dip in Kuroko’s collarbone. He breathes in the scent of boy and vanilla and cold, wet sand.

  
  


“Your birthday is next month,” Kuroko says, kissing Kagami’s eyelids. “I was hoping Kise-kun could spend it with you.”

  
  


“He was going to.”

  
  


“He’s a lovely man, Kagami-kun. You shouldn’t have given him up. He’s beautiful and tolerating and everything you could ever have asked for.”

  
  


Kagami can’t deny that. Kise’s always been too good for him; even Alex tells him that when he calls her up to chat. So do the newspapers, the general public, and all of his adoring fans. He should have more been satisfied and grateful. “I know.”

  
  


“And yet you let him go.”

  
  


Sometimes Kagami thinks he can see right into Kuroko’s soul, and when he does that something always shifts in the other’s eyes, the way his toes curl and press into his hot calf in the middle of a chilly night all those years ago. He still does it now, though under different circumstances. “Him than you.”

  
  


Kagami wipes the tear away from Kuroko’s cheek, brushes his damp fringe out of his forehead and swallows the sad smile lingering on the shorter boy’s face. Kuroko still yields to him the way he remembers him doing, comes apart under his hot, feverish hands. Only this time they take it slow, the way they do when Kagami fails at yet another attempt at getting better. It’s unhealthy, obsessive, but Kuroko is oxygen to Kagami’s ever-exhaling chest.

  
  


“I love you,” Kagami says after, his lids heavy with sleep. He goes down under before he hears the reply, one that he knows by heart. Kuroko makes him cold with his arms draped around his waist, and Kagami drags the blanket over the two of them. His bed already smells like home.

  
  


And like every other morning, he doesn’t think about the sand crusted on his forearms, at the corner of his lip when he showers. He dumps the damp, salty sheets into the wash and doesn’t look twice at the bruise flowering under his jaw. It’s okay, he thinks, if he drowns on land with Kuroko to hold his hand through everything.

  
  
  
  



	4. Glass Half Empty (Glass Half Full)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kuroko is a lot more pliant when drunk.

 

  


When Kuroko starts climbing unsteadily into his lap, flushed and burning right in the middle of Christmas movie reruns at his place with the rest of the Seirin team, Kagami decides that this is the last straw.

  


“C’mon, you idiot,” he mumbles under his breath, bowing in various directions in apology to his amused company, partly because of how Kuroko clings on to the power forward’s waist, and partly because of Kagami’s unexpected politeness seeping through when he’s embarrassed or slightly nervous. “I’m gonna get him home first. I’ll be back real soon.”

  


“Wouldn’t it be easier to just put him to bed in your room?” Kiyoshi asks, shifting his arm so Riko can stretch and lie better against his side. His eyes are bright. Too bright.

  


Kagami also decides to ignore the shit-eating grin of his senpai. “Half an hour, tops.”

  


“Take your time.”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


His parents are out of town for the New Year, but luckily Kuroko’s aunt lives a little way ahead from Kagami’s, and the latter decides that that would be the best place to bring the shorter. For a boy tipping less than sixty on the scale, Kuroko is surprisingly heavy when uncooperative, feet dragging underneath him and face pressed into the side of Kagami’s chest as they walk, his beanie threatening to slide off his head, as does the rest of him to crumple into a mumbling heap on the ground.

  


“God, you are so weak,” Kagami sighs, digging his fingers a little more tightly around his boyfriend’s waist. Kuroko looks up just enough so that Kagami gets a glimpse of his drooping eyelids and a little smile that dances around the edges of his mouth.

  


“Carry me.”

  


“You can walk, you lazy asshole.”

  


“Kagami-kun is dragging my drunk body halfway down the street anyway. Besides, wouldn’t it be easier for you?”

  


“You say all that and yet not decide to offer me a little help?” Kagami rolls his eyes, tugging Kuroko’s woollen beanie back down on his head with a little more force than necessary, but crouching over and obliging anyway.

  


Kuroko’s right, though. The tangle of limbs that end up clinging to his back is much more manageable when they were made to carry its own weight and function independently. Kagami hoists the other up by the butt and continues walking, soft steady steps into the night still tinged by festive voices floating out of half-open windows on this chilly night.

  


“Naughty.”

  


“Shut up, or I’ll drop you.”

  


“Kagami-kun’s bark is always worse than his bite,” sighs Kuroko happily, letting his face fall on the other’s shoulder, trying and failing to cross his ankles around Kagami’s middle. The other observes that his boyfriend is noticeably more needy when intoxicated.

  


Not that he really minds. “How much did you even have to drink?”

  


“One.. Maybe two? Beers? And then Kiyoshi-senpai gave me something that burnt right down my throat but made me feel really good.” Kuroko reaches around to burp in Kagami’s ear, the act a little less vulgar with how soft it eventually escapes his lips. It tickles, just a little.

  


“You’re lucky it was the senpai who gave you shit like that to drink. Could you imagine if you were someplace else?”

  


“Why, then I’d call on Kagami-kun to come save me.” Kuroko’s knack of saying embarrassing things even when drunk never fails to bring out a rise in the other, and noticing the redding tips of his boyfriend’s ears, the shadow laughs, and kisses him, just a small one, right behind his earlobe.

  


“H-hey!”

  


“I like you, Kagami-kun. You’re always like a heater.”

  


“Glad I could be of use,” he retorts sarcastically, bending over a little so he can free a hand to ruffle the top of Kuroko’s head before starting off again. The house is nearing now, the dim streetlights more like a beacon to guide them home rather than an element of shadiness. Nothing seems like it could go wrong on a night like this, and Kagami appreciates it.

  


“You know I don’t mean it like that.” Kuroko tightens his grip around Kagami’s neck in a poor excuse of a hug, slipping out of the lulling conversation between the both of them to hum under his breath and occasionally press feathery-light kisses to the side of Kagami’s face. The other resists the urge to drop him again, knowing full well of his boyfriend’s secret delight in making him blush all the way home.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


They reach the lobby of Kuroko’s aunt’s apartment building sooner than expected, and ignoring the raised eyebrows of the portly security guard, Kagami hoists Kuroko up a little higher, heading for the lift, only gently extricating the uncooperative body from his back when the doors close.

  


Kuroko’s knees are a little unsteady, and Kagami sighs at how he still has to provide some kind of support to prevent the tipsy boy from falling over. The elevator creeps up, floor by floor, the mechanical whirring interjecting Kuroko’s gently hiccupping laughter.

  


“What is wrong with you.”

  


“Kagami is kinky,” is all the other offers, waving a flopping hand around the enclosed space. Kagami only then realises that he’s trapped Kuroko into the corner of the elevator and between his legs, hands closed over his shoulders to keep him upright, and face angled way too close. He almost trips over Kuroko’s stupid legs in a hurry to remove himself from the other’s personal space, muttering multiple <i>sorry</i>s as he does so.

  


Kuroko unexpectedly lurches forward, still laughing, one hand tangled in the collar of Kagami’s coat. Caught off balance, the both of them collapse into a heap on the floor of the elevator, just as the doors slide open.

  


“You are so useless,” Kagami hisses, heaving himself to his feet and dragging the other out of the elevator before the doors can shut again and send them all the way back down to the lobby. He tries to keep things quiet, but it’s really difficult when all Kuroko does is loll around drunkenly, gloved hands buried in his back jean pockets and laugh. Kagami thanks all his lucky stars that none of the doors on this floor are open, lest someone witness their mini commotion.

  


He ends up positioning Kuroko’s feet on top of his own, letting his boyfriend snake his arms around him under his coat, and walking them penguin-style to the door. Kuroko runs his hands down Kagami’s back when the taller reaches around ungracefully to get the keys out of his shadow’s front pocket, trying his best to keep them from jangling.

  


“My aunt should be asleep.”

  


“She had better be. I’m not going to explain to her why her nephew is being a clinging octopus to me, all drunk and stupid on Christmas night.”

  


“Kagami-kun,” Kuroko breathes, leaning against his door for support as he tries his best to jangle the lock open. The redhead shakes his head patiently and takes the keys away from him, sliding the lock open in one smooth turn.

  


“Go on.”

  


Kuroko nods, his hand slipping slowly out of Kagami’s as he steps in. He almost has two feet inside the dark apartment when he pauses. Kagami doesn’t expect the other to stumble back into his arms, one arm curving around his middle and the other straining just a little to reach for his neck.

  


He blushes, despite knowing what Kuroko wants from him. And he gives, easily, sighing into the shorter’s mouth, back stooped a little more than what’s usually comfortable for him given the limited space that they have right now. Despite being the slighter of the two, Kuroko is the one that usually takes charge in their stages of intimacy, the domineering force in him seeping through whenever he has Kagami caught unexpected. But tonight, he is slow, languid, patient, maybe even a little naughty, the alcohol slowing his pace as he presses himself closer when Kagami sucks gently on his tongue. Kuroko tastes like sleep and just the faintest tint of alcohol.

  


When they break apart, Kuroko still clings close, his smile embedded in his eyes that are a little brighter than usual, almost glassy against the fluorescent light above the two of them. It makes Kagami want to whirl the other away from the door, and take him somewhere to make the night stretch out just a bit longer.

  


But he resists. Kagami places one last kiss on Kuroko’s forehead, one where he can feel the burn of the other’s skin from all the alcohol, and then pushes him away lightly. “Go.”

  


“Just another one.” Kuroko points to his lips, and looks at him with his head tilted in the manner that Kagami is still unable to ever resist. He’s glad Aomine isn’t here to see how whipped he is for his former teammate.

  


_One_ stretches out to two more, and Kagami begins the much longer- in his perception- walk home, lips still tingling with the mouthing of _Merry Christmas_ against them.

 

 


End file.
